POSTSCRIPT.
S ATURDAY N I G IIT.
The Morning Papers concur in giving the following account of the new Ministerial arningements.
CA BINET.
Mr. SPRING RICE, Colonies. LOPI1 AUCKLAND, Admiralty. Lord CARLISLE, Privy Seal. Mr. ELLicc, his present office.
NOT CABINET.
Mr. P. THOMSON, PIPSillent of the Board of Trade. Lord Munnravs, I 'ost-ollice.
Mr. FRANCIS BARING, Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. M. O'FEKRA Li., Lord of the Treasury. Also Mr. W. Oitn, in the room of Mr. Gconi:c Possormr, who goes to the seat in the Customs vacated by the death of Mr. Roc.
This list is correct, we believe, with one exceptions: Lord Mil-- GRAVE has refused the office of Postmaster-General, unless connected with a seat in the Cabinet.
It is only necessary to read over the above list, to come to the con- clusion that the new Ministry cannot stand. The arrangements are the result of much selfish intrigue, not of honest exertions to form a vigorous, talented, and NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION. For this miser- able failure Earl GREY is responsible. The King gave him full power to remodel the Cabinet. If it is true, as he himself has declared, that he has neither the nerve nor the spirits requisite for such a task, lie should not have attempted it, but have made way for some person of greater physical and mental energy. He accepted the commission, however ; and it then became his duty to insist on such appointments as would secure to the country a permanent and popular Ministry. But Earl GREY has not acted on this broad and safe principle. His arrangements have been petty and huckstering ; formed, it might be supposed, with a view to the comfort and convenience of that flourishing colony of his family connexions who share among them some 70004 a year, which their patriarch has bestowed upon them out of the public purse. We do not charge Earl GREY with any wish or design to betray his country ; but certain it is, that had such been his purpose, he could not have taken more certain methods to effect it, than by sopaltry a putching-up of his broken Cabinet.
The knowledge of Earl Geuv's indisposition to act at this crisis on a comprehensive and decided plan, induced other members of his Ca- binet to interfere with his arrangements in a manner which would have insured their prompt dismissal by such a man as the Duke of WELLINGTON. Lord BROUGHAM, ever restless, uncertain, and intri- guirg, thwart( d the Premier if he wishtd to obtain the cooperation of the Earl of DORNA.M. When the character and views of the men who would have been his colleagues in the Cabinet are considered, it is matter for rejoicing that Lord DURHAM has not joined it. But the conclusion which must be drawn from the opposition of Lords BROUGHAM and LANSDOWNE to his cooperation is, that the policy of the remodeled Cabinet is to continue the same as the old one. Lord DURHAMCOUld nut act in concert with a politician like Lord BROUGHAM, Whose course is zigzag, whose professions are contradictory, whose " tricks " petplex and annoy his colleagues, and have at length been found out by the King—and his Majesty makes no secret of his disgust at the discovery. How could the manly and consistent Earl of DUlt unst cooperate and unite with this tnmming and ever-shifting poli- tician ? We have mentioned the Marquis of LANSDOWNE as equally anxious with the Lord Chancellor to exclude Lord DURHAM and the Liberals from the Cabinet. This is precisely the line of conduct which we should anticipate from Lord LANSDOWNE. The Juste Milieu policy is exactly suited to his feelings and capacity. There is hardly a man in the country who has a smaller title to interfere in the Government of it, if eminent talents or public services were requisite to confer one. Lord LANSDOWNE, however, though he has outlived the small repu- tation for ability which he once possessed, has been of late excessively busy in all party shiftings and placehunting arrangements ; and to him the country is mainly indebted for the new Ministry. The wily Chan- cellor, to answer his own crooked purposes, has been his coadjutor in the job. It is plain that if it is dangerous to Lord Duallam's reputa- tion to become the colleague of Lord BROUGHAM, he would sink him- self still lower by becoming a subaltern in a Cabinet in which the influence of Lord LANsoowNe is predominant. From the foregoing remarks, our renders will obtain some notion of the intrigues which have been going on in the Cabinet ; but out of doors the jobbers have not been idle. A declaration, signed by a num- ber of Members of' the House of Commons, expressive of "confidence in Earl Gitix," was got up during the week, and presented to him. We say got up, because it was the work of the Whig whippers-in, not a spontaneous expression of the feelings of those who signed it ; many of whom, moreover, were induced to join in the declaration on the understanding that Earl GREY was desirous of forming a really Liberal Administration. As soon as it appeared that the LANSDOWNE and BROUGHAM manceuvres had been successful, much dissatisfaction was expressed by the memorialists; and another, we might even call it a counter. declaration, was extensively signed, in which the intrigues for the exclusion of Lord DuirnAsi were plainly alluded to and reprobated. This shows the value of the first declaration.
The longest life which can be anticipated for the new Cabinet, is for the remainder of the session. Like that of its predecessor, it is at the mercy of the Tories. What their policy is, and what the consequences of that policy succeeding will almost inevitably be, tile Times of Tues- day—before the breaking up of the late Cabinet—set forth in the fol- lowing striking passage. " If that dislocation of the Cabinet, which cannot by human power be long prevented, should through any evil influence or machination be retarded until after the Parlia- ment shall have been prorogned,—if present differenet•s, for they remain to this hour un- settled, should be patched up merely to admit of the Government going ,,n.—so long as there is a House of Commons sitting to watch over it. the manifest conserptence is, thst (durile: the prorogation) the Court, not the House of Commons, will he master of the .11,1d. 'The Court will indulge. unrestrained, its own predilections. A coalition of mock Whigs and genuine Tories will, in all litiman probability, become for a time the succes- sors of Lind Grey's Cabinet. There will be no Parliament sitting. The administra- tion of the Governmeut will be with the enemies of Reform iu Church and State. Knowing tine spirit which necessarily animates the great majority of the English Reformed Parliament. the Oligarch NI inister will try a dissolution—a dissolution! and a new election—a new election with an exasperated People! with Trades Unions organiz■ ed throughout Great Britain, and convertible in an hour to the ends of political vio- lence—nosh:wafer: lott tight of everywhere—the extremes brought into each other's presence—the spirit of the Six Acts in conflict with multitudinous anarchy, and the nation hurled WY it s centre."
Well—The Cabinet has been "patched up merely to admit of the Government going on." So far the game of the Tories has been played. It now depends upon the majority of' the House of Commons to determine whether they will sanction the miserable abortion of a Cabinet, the result of the weakness of Earl GREY and the jobbing of Lords BROUGHAM and LANSDOWNE. We have yet some hope that the plotters may be discomfited.
Previous page
